Potty by Leslie Patricelli
The story told in the board book Potty is simple and just right. A young child (the gender is left ambiguous, easily accomplished because the figure is more babylike than toddlerlike) has to go to the potty but must decide on the best place to go. After watching where the cat and dog go, the child decides, rather anxiously, to try the potty. Cute drawings of the child focusing on the task at hand and eventually struggling to stay awake are a great chance for parent and kid to get some comic relief. The story ends on a high note with the child's success.
Although the pictures aren't anything to write home about - they're quite simple, with bold black outlines and not my favorite style in children's picture book illustration - they're easy for the kid to interpret, and at the final "Hooray!" he always laughs in empathy.
Impressively, the story is told in very few words as internal monologue ("I could go in my diaper. Should I go in my diaper?"). I counted 63 words in all - which I really appreciate, as a request for one "potty book" tends to follow another and another and another...!
All in all, this is a wonderful member of our potty training book stable.
Pirate Potty by Samantha Berger
Pirate Potty teaches the trainee all about moving from diapers to potty by using a little pirate as an example. We follow the young pirate through the essential stages of using the potty, from getting ready to sit on the potty to washing his hands. There's not really any conflict to the story - and it's not so much a story as a tale of the way things are gonna go down, so to speak. The pictures, illustrated by Amy Cartwright, are bright, crisp and charming.
The kid seems to like the tale well enough - he asks for it most times we read our "potty books" - but it's somewhat eclipsed by the pirate hat. See, the main thing to know about Pirate Potty is that it comes with a pirate hat cutout and reward stickers, and the pirate hat is irresistible. Ours was so well-loved that it needed reinforcement with tape after just one day. (The parent is supposed to allow the child to wear the pirate hat only when he uses the potty, but I'm terrible at holding things like pirate hats for ransom as rewards.) It was a bit tricky to figure out how to put the hat together. With no instructions and nil mechanical ability, a bit of user incompetence ensued. But that, too, entertained the kid.
A Potty for Me! A Lift-the-Flap Instruction Manual by Karen Katz
Karen Katz's A Potty for Me is told in rhyming verse. I love picture books in verse, both because they're easier to read and because my son is crazy about rhymes. We follow a young child through getting a new potty, trying to use the potty, having difficulty, having a small accident, trying again, not quite getting there, practicing flushing, trying again, succeeding, and feeling proud. This is another either-gender book, as the illustrations are cleverly vague enough to be either a girl or a boy. I really like Karen Katz's books; this is the second one we've read. The kid follows the story well and loves her illustrations, which are full of pleasing shapes, bright colors, and fun patterns. And of course, lifting the flap is always fun.
The great thing about this books' approach is the "try and try again" theme. As with most of these books, the author deliberately dances around what goes into the potty - number 1 and/or number 2. Though I do wish there were more emphasis on the grittier details - that, after all, is a key source of fascination for kids at this stage and I think the text caters more to parents' delicate sensibilities than kids' - there is an advantage. Being vague makes books like this one work for a toddler who's feeling discouraged at any stage of potty training.
Basically, it's a really good book, and the kid loves to have it read to him.
Once Upon a Potty - Boy by Alona Frankel
Once Upon a Potty - Boy is right up there at the top as one of my son's favorite potty training books. Written originally in 1980 during an era when it was popular to teach kids to come to terms with their bodies, it features the most anatomically correct illustrations you'll probably find in one of these potty training books. Joshua's mom introduces her son and matter-of-factly explains what growing out of diapers is all about and what happens as Joshua learns how to use the potty. There are some graphic illustrations of what's being discussed (a dirty diaper, an accident on the floor, etc), so it's probably not suitable for parents or caregivers who prefer pictorial delicacy over disclosure.
The illustrations are clear, bright, simple and uncluttered. They are also dated in the sense that the diapers are cloth diapers, the potty looks much like a chamber pot, and the mom's a mom and not a dad sometimes and she's wearing a dress. None of that bothered me. It was cool to tell the kid what cloth diapers were and I love teaching him abstract concepts like "old-fashioned." But the "story" is pretty universal, if you get my drift. I mean, some things don't change...
I've found myself saying to the kid, "What would Joshua do?" occasionally as a reminder, and one time it actually worked!
I've found myself saying to the kid, "What would Joshua do?" occasionally as a reminder, and one time it actually worked!
Even Firefighters Go to the Potty: A Potty Training Lift-the-Flap Book by Wendy and Naomi Wax
Out of all the potty training books, my son asks for Even Firefighters Go to the Potty the most. (Even as I write this review, he and I are in a tug of war over who gets to "play" with the book.) But I'm not entirely sure he likes it primarily because of the potty theme. It might very well be that he just loves the lively, cartoonish illustrations of a firefighter, policeman, baseball player, construction worker, doctor (the only woman!), astronaut, waiter (the only African-American!), pilot, train engineer, and zookeeper as people in their respective workplaces wonder where they can have gone. Where are they? The child lifts the flap and finds each one humorously in the bathroom doing his or her business.
The book is fun for the kid. I'm not entirely sure what kind of potty training problem it's designed to solve for parents. I suspect that for parents who have a hard time sharing with their kids the fact that "everyone poops," this book is a godsend, because it announces pretty baldly that everyone uses the toilet, even the grown-ups that children tend to be in awe of. In any case, my son really, really loves this book.
I was a little surprised that this was published first in 2008. The potty-going "heroes" of the book are rather obviously slanted toward white and male. It's not that obvious until you realize that the only African-American "hero" is a waiter. It feels like a bizarre flashback to half a century ago. None of this bothers the kid, of course, and we're a multicultural family that's not overly sensitive to stereotypes. For parents who are sensitive to this kind of thing, and for kids that have limited multicultural experience, I think it's worth a note.
And one other warning: the last page of the book is the polar bear one; there is no "extra" blank page announcing the end. Your kid (and you) will probably try to pry it out of the book, thinking there's another page.
Where's the Poop? by Julie Markes
Wow, does my child love Where's the Poop? The author (Julie Markes) and illustrator (Susan Kathleen Hartung) have together packed a lot of fun into this medium-sized picture book teaching kids that every creature has a natural place to poop, and a human child's happens to be in a toilet.
I found this a fun lift-the-flap book, both for me and for the kid. On each page, a mama or daddy animal (kangaroo, elephant, panda, monkey, tiger, penguin) asks the youngun if he's "made a poop." The baby animal replies in the affirmative, and then it's time for your kid to lift the three flaps to find the hidden poop in the animal's natural environment. Each time the poop is revealed, it's like a punch line, and the kid laughs like a little maniac. The last exchange is between a young boy and his mom, and the, er, hidden treasure is found in a grown-up toilet. I love that fact; it gives the kid a glimpse of the future in a very natural and non-intimidating way.
The book ends on a totally charming note as a solitary bathroom door just asks to be opened. The child lifts the flap and finds a little girl asking for privacy. It's not just a funny note - it helps establish a baseline of normalcy after all the poop-hunting, teaching through humor that people want to keep the poop decently hidden!
The Prince and the Potty by Wendy Cheyette Lewison
My son hasn't really shown signs of identifying with pirates, princes, or other such characters as of yet. But he's able to follow this story very well, considering it's the most traditionally story-like of all the potty training books. The illustrations by Keiko Motoyama are pleasant, crisp and fairy-tail-like, and the vocabulary is easy for him to understand.
The story? A king and a queen seek help from a wise man in getting the young prince to accept his potty. The wise man recommends getting a puppy. Mystified, the royal parents do so and are quickly occupied trying to teach the puppy to relieve himself where he's supposed to go, while the young prince helps. On the day the puppy learns, everyone celebrates, including the prince...who has now learned where he, too, is supposed to go. There is one illustration at the end that reveals that the prince has been potty trained to pee standing up. I like that, and in general, the variety of choices and approaches offered by all these books together.
As for the kid's opinion...I wouldn't call The Prince and the Potty my son's favorite, but he likes it read to him just fine. I think the prince is a rather passive character, learning through watching the puppy learn, then making a breakthrough rather suddenly. But it's a nice story and the dog character has a big fan in my son.
Update: Okay, I've got to change this review. He took a while to warm up to the prince, but this book is rapidly becoming the first one he asks for. He loves the prince, he chatters about all the details in the illustrations, he loves the puppy, and he's responding very well to the message that everyone has a place they're supposed to go.
Update: Okay, I've got to change this review. He took a while to warm up to the prince, but this book is rapidly becoming the first one he asks for. He loves the prince, he chatters about all the details in the illustrations, he loves the puppy, and he's responding very well to the message that everyone has a place they're supposed to go.
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